We are a grass roots organization located in both Israel and the United States. Our intention is to be pro-active on behalf of Israel. This means we will identify the topics that need examination, analysis and promotion. Our intention is to write accurately what is going on here in Israel rather than react to the anti-Israel media pieces that comprise most of today's media outlets.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

In
recent weeks, Palestinian Authority security forces arrested at least
nine journalists and bloggers in the West Bank for exposing corruption.
The Palestinian Authority and its media group clearly do not want the
outside world to receive information about the situation in the
Palestinian territories.

As journalists worldwide
celebrated World Free Press Day on May 3, the Palestinian Journalists
Syndicate in the West Bank chose to wage a campaign of intimidation
against Palestinian reporters who commit the "crime" of meeting with
Israeli counterparts.

The
decision to punish Palestinian journalists who hold meetings with
Israeli colleagues began after a series of joint seminars that were held
in Norway, Germany and France. At these seminars, Israeli and
Palestinian journalists discussed joint cooperation and ways of
promoting freedom of expression.

The syndicate, dominated by Fatah and affiliated with the Palestinian
Authority leadership in Ramallah, threatened sanctions against any
Palestinian journalist who engages in "normalization" with Israel.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate functions more as a political
body than a union that is supposed to defend the rights of its members.

The syndicate wants Palestinian journalists to serve as soldiers on
behalf of the Palestinian cause. Journalists, according to the
syndicate, should first and foremost be loyal to their president, prime
minister, government, homeland and cause. As for the truth, it appears
at the bottom of the syndicate's list of priorities.

The syndicate's main task should be to defend freedom of media in the
Palestinian territories. But instead of fighting for the rights of
Palestinian journalists, who are facing a campaign of intimidation under
the two Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the
syndicate has also decided to join the clampdown on freedom of
expression.

A syndicate that reports directly to the office of the president in
Ramallah can never serve the interests of Palestinian journalists.

Cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian journalists has never
been a new or unique phenomenon. Long before the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority in 1994, representatives of the two sides
maintained close ties, often exchanging information and helping each
other cover stories both inside Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But the Palestinian Authority's syndicate is now trying to put an end
to this cooperation under the pretext of combating normalization with
Israel.

Sanctions include expulsion from the syndicate and a boycott by
Palestinian newspapers and other media outlets belonging to the
Palestinian Authority.

If anyone stands to lose from the ban on holding contacts with
Israeli media representatives, it is the Palestinian journalists
themselves. Over the past few decades, Palestinian journalists have
helped Israeli newspapers and TV stations cover the story on the
Palestinian side. Thanks to this cooperation, the Israeli public learned
a lot about what was happening in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In recent weeks, Palestinian Authority security forces in the West
Bank arrested at least nine Palestinian journalists and bloggers for
exposing corruption scandals and posting comments critical of
Palestinian leaders on Facebook. The affected journalists complained
that the syndicate did not make a serious effort on their behalf,
limiting its response to issuing laconic statements demanding the
release of some of the detainees.

The Palestinian Authority and its media group clearly do not want the
Israeli public and the outside world to receive information about the
situation in the Palestinian territories.
This is why they are now waging the new campaign of intimidation
against journalists who are found guilty of meeting with Israeli
counterparts.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Attorney Yoram
Sheftel said on Thursday that the State has failed in the way it dealt
with the case of the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El and expressed
pessimism that the government would be able to produce legislation that
would prevent the demolition of the neighborhood.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected
the state's petition to postpone the destruction of five buildings in
Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood until July 1. The Attorney General had
asked for a three-month extension in order for the government to find a
way to legalize the buildings.

“The criticism of the Supreme Court’s decision should be directed
at the prosecution and not at the Court,” Sheftel told Arutz Sheva. “The
prosecution repeatedly told the Court that the State agrees to destroy
half the Ulpana neighborhood. The proceeding goes on for a year and a
half and the State announces that it agrees to the demolition. So what
do you expect the Court to do when its judgment has been given on the
basis of the prosecution's statement?”He added that the government is the one that abandoned the people of Beit El and left them in the hands of the prosecution.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was interviewed last Friday by CNN's
Christiana Ammanpour and sought to give his audience the impression that
he had been on the verge of a historical peace agreement with Mahmoud
Abbas in 2008, and only because of the interference of individuals from
the US that brought in outside money, an Israeli-Palestinian peace
agreement was not reached.

Whatever his political motives,
Olmert was feeding the international myth machine that Israelis and
Palestinians were close to a historic breakthrough which needed to be
bridged by muscular American diplomacy.

Leaving aside his
dramatic accusations about millions of dollars that were transferred
from what he called "the extreme right wing" in the US to hamper his
peace initiative, Olmert was not even close to a final agreement, as he
implied to his CNN audience. In fact, when carefully examined, Olmert's
secret talks with Abbas should be seen as the latest proof that the
fundamental gaps between the most maximal concession made by an Israeli
prime minister did not meet the minimal requirements of Abbas for an
agreement. This was not the first time that the myth of an impending
Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough, that never happened, was widely
promoted.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at end of the Taba talks issued a
joint statement on January 27, 2001 when their meetings concluded,
saying: "The sides declare that they have never been closer to reaching
an agreement.." Yet when Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami repeated this
to a radio reporter from Kol Yisrael, Muhammad Dahlan responded
immediately afterwards by saying Kharta Barta (slang for baloney).

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Hillary Clinton’s statement to a Muslim audience in Bangladesh that
President Obama has a particular respect for Islam among all religions
accentuates the administration’s dangerously naive relationship with the
Muslim Brotherhood, says nationally syndicated talk-radio host Michael
Savage.
The secretary of state speaks “as if Islam built America,” Savage
told his “Savage Nation” listening audience last night, which ranks
third nationwide.

According to Clinton, said Savage, “It wasn’t Christians who came
over on the Mayflower; it wasn’t Christians who wrote the Declaration of
Independence and U.S. Constitution; but it was Muslims.”
Savage, who has presented his case against another Obama term in his new bestselling book, “Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama’s Dream Of The Socialist States Of America,” declared: “You can only bend over backwards so far until your spine breaks.”

Clinton was responding to a student at a public forum Sunday in
Muslim-majority Bangladesh who asked about the perception that the U.S.
was against Islam.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Left behind in the wake of Netanyahu’s surprise unity maneuver are some
serious winners and loser. There is no doubt that elections would have shaken
things up, but this unity coalition shakes up things even more.

What Netanyahu managed to do today is of historic
proportions and has some serious ramifications for many people on both a
personal and national level. We present to you our list of winners and
losers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Winner. Bibi would
probably have done well in elections, but now he runs the largest unity
government ever in the history of Israel, giving him a support base not even
Ben-Gurion could have dreamed of.

Shaul Mofaz: Winner. Mofaz made a fool out of himself when
he jumped ship to Kadima, but after sitting it out on the back benches behind
Tzipi Livni on the back benched, he’s manages to come out on top and resuscitate
the essentially dead Kadima party.

Kadima Party: Winner Until yesterday they were completely
irrelevant and simply dead in the water; the largest individual party in the
Knesset was forced to face the fact that they might as well not even have been
voted into office. Now they have a seat at the table, and perhaps some influence
too.Tzipi Livni: Loser She could have been in the government 3
years ago, 2 years ago, and even 1 year ago. This could have been her and not
Mofaz. At the end of the day, Kadima was kept in failure and disgrace because of
her. Now it’s obvious to all.Likud Party: Winner The Likud as a party is more powerful
than ever.Likud MKs: Losers For the most part, their individual
influence and power has been diluted. Perhaps significantly.Labor: Losers They were positioned to be the second largest
party. Who knows what will be in a year and a half. They may be in for an even
bigger shock in the opposition (see Ahmed Tibi below). Shelly Yachimovitch: Black eye Labor lost, but Shelly only
got a black eye out of this. Perhaps she’ll lead the Tel Aviv summer block
party, if it happens. Yisrael Beiteinu: Winner/Loser Yisrael Beiteinu didn’t
really want elections, so this is good for them. The downside, their influence
has been diluted, perhaps almost completely. One of the goals of this unity
coalition is to implement a good replacement for the Tal law. It may happen.
Yisrael Beiteinu may even get part of the credit for it, so they can at least
bask in the reflected glory. Avigdor Lieberman: Loser Lieberman will keep his job, avoid
elections, and get the opportunity to try to pass more laws he wants. But on the
downside, the investigation(s) against him will now continue, and his influence
has been severely diminished. We’ll see if he can make a comeback out of this.
Ahmed Tibi: Winner What does Ahmed Tibi have to do with
this? It’s simple math. Depending on a few factors, there will be only around 26
MKs in the opposition. The Arab have the largest number of opposition members
compared to Labor, Meretz (and maybe Ichud Leumi). Ahmed Tibi is poised to be
the new head of the opposition. Meretz: Losers Outside, irrelevant, no following, and not
going to be opposition leader. Not even the Tel Aviv summer block party will be
able to help them. Aryeh Deri: Loser No explanation needed.Shas: Winners See Aryeh Deri above. Yair Lapid: Loser No explanation needed, but we’ll give one
anyway. Sure he can go back to TV and perhaps try again next year, but he really
lost his opportunity, even as his followers lost their enthusiasm for him the
longer he stayed in the race.President Obama: Loser Obama is a partisan president, while
Bibi is the leader of the largest national unity coalition in the history of
Israel. Netanyahu has the support of most of the country behind him for whatever
he may need to do. Obama may have hoped he’d be facing a weaker Bibi after
November, there’s no chance of that now. Dagan, Diskin, etc.: Losers Netanyahu and Barak are
messianists, and irrational? Well, then add Mofaz too, and 80% of the Knesset.
Now the former security chiefs sound like sore losers. Ehud Barak: Winner He still has a job.Yuval Zellner: Winner Yuval Who? We asked the same thing.
Zellner just replaced Livni in the Knesset. Until this morning, he was going to
go down in history as one of the shortest serving MKs (who would never get a
second chance at it either). Now he gets a chance to serve. Moshe Feiglin: Loser (Netanyahu election shenanigans aside)
Moshe would have done well in elections. It remains to be seen if Likud MKs will
still have as much influence in the unity government, because right now his
influence is through them. On the other hand, there’s a slight chance he may be
entering the Knesset as a new MK to replace someone else who might be leaving.
In which case, he will become a winner. Chareidi Parties: Losers In or out of the coalition, it
doesn’t matter. Some new, improved Tal law will pass, and that battle will be
lost. Now it’s up to them to decide if they want to work together to make it a
good law or not. The Chareidim: Winners A new version of the Tal law will
pass that will help integrate Chareidim into the work force and perhaps the
army/national service, removing them from the cycle of poverty they’re currently
in. And they’ll still be able to learn Torah. Exactly how good things turn out
for them will depend on what their parties fight for and what they’re leaders
are willing to compromise on.Mafdal-Bayit Yehud-Ichud Leumi: Winners Really! They are
just as irrelevant now (on a legislative level) as they were before, and they
probably weren’t going to do that much better in the next election. But at least
they got their act together and learned they can unify. That’s a very good
thing. Hopefully it will last.Ichud Leumi: No difference In or out of the coalition, it
won’t make much of a difference, but do they really want to sit outside with
just Meretz, Labor and the Arab parties?Ulpana, Beit El: Losers The Supreme Court just decided to
only give the government 2 weeks to destroy the homes. The new unity government
is likely to do it. But they’ll probably compensate the owners at least. We’ll
know in a few weeks if they are really losers here or not. Settlements: Winners (hopefully) For the most part, we won’t
see another Hitnatkut (expulsion), and Bibi may eventually legalize more
outposts and pass laws to help others, perhaps even annex settlement blocks or
Area C. As long they stay out of direct conflict with the Supreme Court,
individual settlements should be safe. Overall the Settlement Enterprise should
be OK. Supreme Court: Winner Kadima is on their side, and will
block legislation that will put limits on their extrajudicial expanded
powers.Israel’s Political Media Pundits: Losers They’re like deer
in the headlights, they were completely surprised by what happened.
Israel: Winners As an aside Israel saved NIS 400 million on
election costs. National Unity is a good thing (for all the vague reasons). It
also means that the country is united in whatever challenges it may need to face
with Iran. Perhaps we’ll also see a real revamping of the government system.The Palestinians: N/A They don’t even have a pony in this
race.Iranian Government: Losers There’s a much higher probability
that with such a large, stable unity government, and with (the Iranian) Mofaz at
Bibi’s side, that a strike against Iran’s nuclear weapon production facilities
is very likely.The Iranian People: Winners Perhaps there will be more
outside support to help them overthrow the Islamic regime, now that there is a
stronger Israel.The Jewish People: WinnersNational unity is a good thing
in religious thought. So overall, this should be good for the Jews.

It happened at the end
of a Sabbath eve supper of a group of Jewish students. Amir Lev, Jewish
Agency emissary at UC San Diego, went out for a smoke. He saw two cars
wrapped with Palestinian flags. “I took a few steps in the direction of
the cars and they left,” Lev recalls. “Two days later an Israeli student
came over to his car and discovered that they spray painted the words
‘Zionist terrorist.’”
“This does not happen every day, but there is definitely an escalation in the anti-Israel
atmosphere in this university. And this is happening because for the
first time Israeli students are responding,” he says. “There is an
approach which says it is preferable not to respond, because if we make
noise we only give the other side more public relations. But we cannot
continue giving them the stage. Some 90% of the students don’t
understand what this is about at all. We need to fight in order to bring
them to our side. Now they see us; we are active.”
This is exactly what is
happening in the last two years in universities throughout the US and in
particular in southern California – anti Israeli movements are no
longer playing on an empty field. There are Israeli
and Jewish American students who are fighting back against the heart of the intellectual elite in the US.

California, one of the most liberal and left-wing states in the
US poses a particularly difficult challenge: Most of the universities
here are anti-Israel among both professors and students. On the other
hand, Los Angeles alone is the largest Israeli population center outside
of Israel, and all the universities have a relatively high percentage
of Jewish students. So there is a big vacuum.
The emissary program of the Jewish Agency entered this vacuum,
and it includes at this stage 50 young people in their 20s, who come on
service for a year to three years in the largest universities in the US.
The objective is to impose order on Israeli public relations efforts on
the campuses. The financing comes jointly from the Jewish Agency,
Hillel and private donors. In the case of California the main donor is
the Israel Leadership Council (ILC,) a five year old Israeli
organization that became a significant player in advancing Israel’s
interests in southern California.
Under the wings of Adam Milstein, a real estate tycoon who is one of
the wealthiest men in the Israeli community, the organization also
finances the Ambassador project, which trains local students to serve as
a public relations force for Israel on campuses under the supervision
of Israeli monitors. These are young people who are already located at
the universities, usually US natives or some who came at a young age,
and in fact most of them love the US and do not consider immigrating to
Israel – but one visit to Israel is all that they need to form a deep
emotional bond.

“Everything most of these university students know about Israel is so
distorted and baseless they are positive we are Nazis,” says Sagi
Balasha, director of ILC. “But when they see our representatives, they
see human beings – young people, educated, civilized. Very few people
work on campuses with tens of thousands of students. It is a full-time
job facing people some of whom are Jews who oppose Israel. These are
Israel’s reserve soldiers on the campuses.

Boycotting hummus

Representatives of this “reserve unit” gathered in the beautiful
living room of the home of Adam and Gila Milstein one cold evening. All
impressive, strictly polite, perfect speaking fluency, tremendous
desire, and impressively level-headed. Defining them isn’t important,
salt of the earth or Silicon Valley, these representatives give Israel
an appearance that is 180 degrees different than what the average
American absorbs from television. Most of them, by the way, hold
left-wing political opinions.

“In the period of Operation Defensive Shield I served at the IDF
Spokesman’s Office and worked with foreign journalists”, says Neri
Johnson, the emissary to UCLA. “It was almost impossible to talk to
them. The pictures that came from the field were difficult and it was
impossible to say something in their defense, but no one even tried to
understand the context. Everything was black and white. I couldn’t
forget it even after the army, so I came here.”
“The other side is much better than we in relaying its messages,
and this is frustrating,” says Lian Kimia, who came to the US with her
parents at age 7, studied in UCLA, and now at age 25 is immigrating to
Israel.
“They have Apartheid Week, which takes place in almost every
American… the entire week is overflowing with effective gimmicks. Once
they set up a roadblock in the middle of the campus, so one of us got
dressed like a Palestinian, went there and told the students gathered
there: 'Imagine that I was a terrorist, this place would have blown up
already.’ But we generally don’t behave like that but try to create a
dialogue. The question is always whether to go down to their level,
because this propaganda is so strong.”
This is also the week in which pro-Palestinian organizations try
to pass a resolution supporting the BDS movement, which was founded in
2005 for the purpose of reviving the economic boycott against Israel. A
significant part of its activities is held on campus, with Palestinian
students and supporters seeking to cancel deals with Israel.
“This boycott proposal passed only once until today, at
Berkeley,” says Ido Adulami, the USC emissary. “It passed unanimously,
but the university president cast a veto. They tried to remove Sabra
hummus from the cafeteria, claiming that the owners, Strauss, contribute
to the IDF. It gets down to the level of boycotting hummus.”
IN UC San Diego there is a relatively new phenomenon – in recent
years there has been a pronounced rush against Israel that reached the
point where Israeli students preferred not to wander the main paths of
the campus during Apartheid Week.
“Two months ago we heard that the demand to impose a boycott
will come up this week,” says Amir Lev. “From the moment that we
discovered this we charged at members of the student government of the
university with aggressive lobbying. This is a political effort in every
way. Now it is clear to everyone that we are here.”
“We got there at 5:30 pm and left at 2:00 am. We sat in a small
room with 250-300 students who were divided clearly into two sides… some
90% of the people in the room were never in Israel, don’t know anything
about the conflict, it is doubtful if they can even identify Israel on a
map. They conduct a debate full of fire and shouts as if they have any
idea of what they are talking about. This is a university with more than
30,000 students, and all the lists that take part in the next elections
to student government are running on one platform only – whether they
are for or against a boycott against Israel. So what if most of the
students don’t know what this is even about?” he says.
“The proposal lost by a 20-13 majority. If we had not been
there, the resolution no doubt would have been passed. They were in
shock. They wept as if we prevented the establishment of their state at
that moment.”

Exposing the extremism

The force of anti-Israel feeling is something that changes from
campus to campus and sometimes also at the campus itself from year to
year. Everything depends on the students who study there at any
particular moment. In Berkeley it was always hot – in the past year
students built models of West Bank roadblocks in the middle of campus,
but this year it is relatively quiet there.

The University of California, Irvine in Orange County was
considered until a few years ago as one of the most hostile campuses to
Israel in America. Two years ago pro-Palestinian students disrupted a
lecture by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, and as a result of this the
number of Jews studying at Irvine reached a new low for the last 15
years.
“They come to the lectures we organized, sit in the first row,
and at the moment the lecture starts they get up and leave,” says Eren
Hoch, the Jewish Agency emissary to the university. “Once we brought a
lecturer, a former IDF officer who said plainly that he is in favor of
two states, and they got up and left anyway.”
When asked whether the pro-Israel activists interact with the
other side, Amir Lev responds: “Definitely. We manage to keep it
respectable. This is America. Everything is terribly politically correct
and you must keep it polite. This is not about persuading them. When I
sit with one of them in a café, I do not speak to them but to the people
sitting around and listening. There are people who don’t agree even to
speak with me because I served in the army, I am an oppressor. But we
try to prompt others not to see us one-dimensionally.”
“They are clever,” adds Ido Adulami. “They are careful to say
they are not anti-Jewish, but rather, anti-Zionist. They also use the
word Zionism all the time. They made it a word of contempt and this is
propaganda that also influences us. But the innovation we bring is
focusing on things that are not tied to politics.
“We try to place a human face on what they know about Israel.
For example, we have a group that deals with Israel only from the
high-tech business angle. It is most important to cause people to
understand the gap between what they see on television and reality. At
least they will know what they are talking about. In a world in which
your life is summed up by your status on Facebook this is a big
challenge,” he says.

Lev concludes: “It is only 5% of the students, but these are the
activists; they make the noise. And what is most important is that they
are also the next generation of American leaders. Our objective is to
expose the extremism of the other side and we feel we are succeeding,
because suddenly now for the first time the organization of black
students is trying to make contact with us and people feel at ease
walking on campus.”

I am deeply distressed
at the continuous destruction of Jewish communities and neighborhoods such as
that which may happen in Bet -El in the near future.

As one who wishes to
fully support the present government I request that you do your utmost to
preserve the rights of Israeli citizens who are entitled to live without fear
of being uprooted from their homes.

The consequences of
not protecting Jewish families impacts not only those individuals but also
erodes the trust of many of us.

I AM ALSO COMPLETELY
OPPOSED TO THE AUTHORITY IN THE HANDS OF DEFENSE MINISTER, EHUD BARAK, WHO HAS
REPEATEDLY DISPLAYED SUCH LACK OF HUMANITY TOWARD FELLOW JEWS.

WE NEED AN
IMMEDIATE CHANGE IN THIS AND REQUEST THAT YOU START BY DOING ALL IN
YOUR POWER TO PREVENT THE POSSIBLE DESTRUCTION OF THE BET-EL
NEIGHBORHOOD.

Shavua
tov!

Chana
Givon

This letter prompted a response-here is the reply from the MK's office:

Dear Chana,

We received your latter at the Knesset's Spear
Rivlin.

MK Rivlin is trying to do what he can to avoid distraction
of Jewish communities and neighborhoods in Beith El, Migron and other
places.

He hope that there will be good solution to the extremely
complicated situation.

Sincerely,

Chaim Neria

Knesset's Speaker Office

Comment: Multiple this by 100 and the motivation on the part of MK's to take appropriate action will be intense. Please help and take only 5 minutes of your time to join us. Numbers do matter!

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Over the weekend we learned that Israeli elections were scheduled for
September 4th because of the collapse of Netanyahu's coalition. Late
last night the Israeli Prime Minster and the head of the leading
opposition party Kadima, have reached an agreement to bring the
opposition party into the coalition forestalling the election till the
official end of its term on October 22, 2013.

The inclusion of Kadima, the party formed by former Prime Minster Ariel
Sharon brings the ruling coalition to 94 seats, almost 80% of the 120
seat Knesset--the largest coalition in Israeli history. This new
government may add some stability to the disjointed Israeli system.

The great thing about Israel's political system is its inclusiveness.
The 120 seats in the Knesset are handed out proportionally to each party
that receives at least 2% of the vote. The lousy thing about the
Israeli political system is its inclusiveness.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Little Zakkai is home. He's
not yet "all clear" as some of that problem with air in the cavity
surrounding his lungs remains -- or remained when he was discharged
yesterday. As he was not having trouble breathing, and it was thought that
there was no leak in his lungs, he was sent home with the hope that the
situation would resolve itself. He became much happier once the drain was
removed from his thorax. He will be closely monitored, returning to the
hospital for a scan in about two weeks.

Here you see a
somewhat confused or retiring little boy (all the transitions likely being
bewildering) sitting in front of the very large cupcake his grateful parents got
him for celebration.

Please G-d, may there be only good
news from this point on. Keep praying, with gratitude for his progress in
recovering.

~~~~~~~~~~

And then other happy news of
medical progress. I had asked for prayers for a student in Toulouse who
had been injured in the attack on the school and was at one point
unconscious. For this information I thank my friend, Sharmaine, in
Paris: Aaron Ben Leah is out of danger but still recovering.
Keep praying for him, please. A group of women in Paris will be coming
together tonight for prayers on his behalf, as well.

Is this
"progress"?

At the Likud Central Committee
Convention which opened yesterday in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Netanyahu, just up
from sitting shiva for his father, announced that for the sake of "governmental
stability," elections would be held in four months.

Sunday, May 06, 2012

On Wednesday evening Peter Beinart and Daniel Gordis had
a debate, sponsored by Tablet Magazine and The Columbia Current. At one
point Gordis highlighted a sentence of Beinart’s book in which he writes that
Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza "sometimes" shell Israel.

At the core of the tragedy lies the refusal to accept that
in both America and Israel, we live in an age not of Jewish weakness, but of
Jewish power, and that without moral vigilance, Jews will abuse power just as
hideously as anyone else. American Jewish organizations do not deny that Jews
wield power; privately, they exult in it. Emotionally, power is what groups
like AIPAC sell: the power to be a modern-day Esther, whispering in the ear of
the King and saving your power from destruction. What they don’t acknowledge is
what happens at the end of the Purim story. By discussing power only as a means
of survival, the American Jewish establishment implicitly denies that Jews can
use power for anything but survival. They deny that Jews, like all human
beings, can use power not merely to survive, but to destroy.

About a year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime, the crisis
in Egypt has brought the country to the edge of
abyss.

The political crisis escalated shortly after the Muslim
Brotherhood decided to appoint its own candidate for presidency. This decision
came after the Brotherhood, together with the Salafists, obtained an
overwhelming majority in the Egyptian parliament.

Shortly after this decision it became clear that the Brotherhood
and the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has governed Egypt
since Mubarak's fall, are not on the same page any more. Their differences
involve key issues such as the drafting of a new constitution and the power of
the Egyptian parliament.

In addition, negotiations regarding a much needed IMF loan ended
without a deal because of lack of political support for acceptance of the IMF
conditions.

Another complicating factor is the lack of progress in drafting
the new constitution.Tensions further increased after several presidential candidates,
including Khairat al-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, and Salafist
leader Abu Ishmail, were disqualified as presidential
candidates.

The disqualified candidates appealed against the decision of the
supervisory body of Egypt's election committee, but their appeals were
dismissed. The Muslim Brotherhood then simply appointed a new candidate:
Mohammed Mursi, the leader of the Freedom and Justice
Party.

Boris Johnson is a supremely gifted man. His command of the written and spoken English language is sans pareil.
He writes at lightning speed. He has bucketfuls of charisma - his
personality is as powerful at an Afro-Caribbean husting as it is at a
Jewish Charity dinner or at Mayor's Question Time. He has impeccable
judgment - he knows when to be jokey and when to be serious. And he's
very modest. It was not Johnson who told the Press how he had come to
the aid of a woman under attack in Camden:

So congratulations to this thoroughly decent guy (and his campaign
team) on a terrific win on Thursday. It was a very different campaign
from 2008. Then there was a real bandwagon effect: Johnson started off
as a no-hope candidate but as revelations mounted about Livingstone's
profligacy at City Hall (eg £36000 for him and his entourage to go to
Cuba and Venezuela, and producing "The Londoner", a propaganda sheet
read by no-one) so support for Johnson mounted. This campaign was a
joyless slog with Johnson doggedly defending his many successes and
insisting that Livingstone's plan to cut underground fares by 7% was
uneconomic.

Last Monday, Ma’an News Agencyreported
that “The Palestinian Authority has quietly instructed Internet
providers to block access to news websites whose reporting is critical of
President Mahmoud Abbas.” This report confirmed what I had been reporting
since January. Shortly thereafter, PalTel said that it had
“no choice” but to follow the censorship orders. Victoria Nuland,
spokesperson at the U.S. State Department, said
that the United States was “concerned” by the reports.

Caroline Glick & Mark Levin: The Israeli Solution -- A One-State Pla

Why Israel Opposes International Forces in the Jordan Valley

U.S. scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel

Yet another indication of the absolute corruption of American academia today. "US scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel," from the Jerusalem Post, December 16: NEW YORK – The 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA), which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to...http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/us-scholars-group-votes-in-favor-of-academic-boycott-of-israel.html

Israel Living Prophecy

A senior New Israel Fund officer told a U.S. official in 2010 that the disappearance of the Jewish state would not be a tragedy, according to a document that was leaked by Wikileaks...She commented that she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic.

Mideast expert Michael Widlanski: Fatah is a joke

US-Israeli talks focus on Ahmadinejad's possible ouster

How to exploit the deep cracks forming in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration for removing the Iranian president was a top item on the agenda of the high-level talks between Barack Obama's advisers and Israeli officials at Mossad headquarters in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Wednesday, July 29.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that Ahmadinejad's cabinet is falling apart; of his original lineup of 21 ministers, only nine remain at their posts.

The Identity Of The Land

Why the Palestinians need to recognize the Jewish State

We do NOT support a 2-state solution

A January 2009 poll found that Americans oppose creating a Palestinian state by 45-31 percent. A February 2009 Maagar Mohot Survey Institute poll has also shown that Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state by 51-32 percent.

Many other polls tell a similar story.

These figures suggest that Americans and Israelis have understood that creating a Palestinian state under current conditions will not bring peace but merely another terror state.

Netanya,Israel

Jerusalem At Night

Why reconstruct Gaza without making demands

- that Shalit be release without convicted terrorists being released by Israel in exchange,

- that the US be put in charge of the southern border to ensure that Hamas isn’t rearmed?

- that their three preconditions be accepted by Hamas, i.e. agree to all former agreements,recognize Israel and renounce terror

- that Hamas amend their Charter

- That Hamas disconnect from Iran

The answer is that they don’t want to.

Children of Hamas

Picture of Hamas children the media does not show you

IDF: Civilian Deaths in Gaza Less than 25% of Total

A maximum of 25% of the Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli operation are innocent civilians, the head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), Col. Moshe Levi, said Wednesday. According to Palestinian medical officials, Israel has killed some 1,000 Palestinians and more than half of them are civilians. Levi said the CLA had compiled a list with the names of 900 Palestinians killed during the fighting. He said that 150 names were of women, children and elderly, and that the maximum number of civilians killed so far was 250. Levi also dismissed claims that 43 Palestinians were killed in an IDF attack on a Hamas terror cell that was firing mortars at Israeli forces from within an UNRWA school in Jabalya. Levi said 21 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including a number of Hamas operatives. (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas teaching the children of Gaza

An Iranian reformist daily newspaper has criticized Hamas "for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals." This is reported in today's Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. The Palestinian daily adds that in response the Iranian government has closed the newspaper.

"The Iranian news agency "Irna" reported yesterday, that the Iranian Culture Ministry has closed the reformist daily newspaper "Karjo Zaran", because it published a report that included criticism of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). On December 30 the paper published a statement of a reformist student organization, that has criticized Hamas for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals. The statement was published whilst the Iranian government expresses a unified stands against Israel, and Tehran is overwhelmed by demonstrations against Israel."

[Al-Ayyam, Jan. 1, 2009] Thanks PMW

Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments

9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5]1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]Thanks Israel Project

It began with this...

The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917Dear Lord Rothschild,I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate theachievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities inPalestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.2

Signed,Arthur James Balfour[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]

Favorite Books

While Europe Slept

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member

Syria is an Occupier-Are You Listening World?

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the UN. In meticulous detail - supplemented by photographs and satellite images - the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated.

Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil - in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms which amount to an area of about 12 square miles.

It would be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject.

Information worth Possessing

"Israel gave the Palestinians an autonomy in 42% of the West Bank and Gaza after the Oslo accords in the early 90's. Over 92% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were then under the administration of the Palestinian Authority and its Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"Israel is surrounded by 10 hostile Arab countries who do not even recognize its right to exist ( Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia, Aden) and Iran"